The Greater London Authority has committed to use its procurement power to ensure construction projects under its control meet ‘the highest employment standards’.
Separately, the London Borough of Newham also signed up to the charter this week and Barking & Dagenham council signed the Construction Charter on 4 July this year.
Unite regional secretary Peter Kavanagh said: “The mayor of London and Unite are joining forces to ensure our world class capital city has world class employment standards for construction workers. The charter combines the GLA’s procurement power with Unite’s influence in the workplace to ensure construction projects under the control of the authority meet the highest standards.
“Workers will have the right to speak out on safety issues and be paid a fair rate for the job. The charter means there will be no blacklisting of workers.
"Vitally, the charter also protects workers from the scourge of bogus self-employment. It ensures construction workers are directly employed instead of paying £20-30 a week to payroll companies just to get their wages. "
James Murray, deputy mayor for housing & residential development, said: “At City Hall we are using all the resources and powers we have to build more council, social rented and other genuinely affordable homes. The charter means that workers and residents can be confident that projects we are involved with will follow best practice on conditions and pay for construction workers, and I urge other authorities to join us.”
London follows a host of local authorities that have signed up to Unite’s charter, including most recently Leicester in May and Southampton in June. Manchester signed up in February. Earlier signatories include: Liverpool, Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, Durham City, South Tyneside, Liverpool, Barnsley, Wakefield, Sheffield, Bradford, Doncaster, North Lanarkshire, Crawley, Perth and Bristol.
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